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Saudi Arabia and Qatar have said they will settle Syria’s outstanding debt to the World Bank, in a step that will help the conflict-ravaged country access funding for postwar reconstruction and public-sector salaries.
The funding of about $15mn will be the first financial assistance to Syria from Saudi Arabia since the fall last year of Bashar al-Assad’s regime, a government that the kingdom had staunchly opposed.
“This commitment will pave the way for the World Bank Group to resume support and operations in Syria after a suspension of more than 14 years,” the two countries said in a joint statement on Sunday during the spring meetings in Washington of the World Bank and IMF.
Syria’s economy has been shattered by more than a decade of war and wide-ranging sanctions, presenting a formidable challenge for the new government led by former rebels from the Islamist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham.
Saudi Arabia and its Gulf neighbours have stepped up humanitarian aid to Syria in recent months, but the debt settlement plan will be the first Saudi funding for the country as Riyadh moves to step up its influence, including by welcoming the Syrian leader on his first foreign trip in February.
Mohammed al-Jadaan, the kingdom’s finance minister, stressed on Friday the need to move cautiously on Syria because of sanctions and other factors, but said the international community should do more to support war-torn countries in the region, including Yemen, Sudan, Lebanon and the Palestinian territories.
“They need to know that the international community . . . will stand by them,” he said.
Syria’s central bank governor and finance minister attended the World Bank and IMF meetings in Washington this week for the first time in more than two decades.
It was the first visit by Syria’s new government to the US since the Assad regime was toppled in December after a lightning offensive by opposition forces. Since then, Syria’s government has sought to rebuild the country’s diplomatic ties with regional and global powers, as well as international financial institutions.
Officials from the IMF and the World Bank emphasised to the Syrian authorities the need for credible economic data and to rebuild the central bank.